ABC's Martin Fry is just getting started
In one month’s time, ABC’s Martin Fry comes to City Varieties with an intimate evening of stripped-back music and conversation. To celebrate, Martin tells us about the remarkable journey he’s been on over the last forty years.
Written by A Way With Media
A Lexicon of Life
It’s been a remarkable journey. Martin Fry, frontman and leader of ABC, has scaled the heights of pop stardom. He created an iconic pop record – The Lexicon of Love – and enjoyed chart success on both sides of the Atlantic with such hits as Tears Are Not Enough, Poison Arrow, The Look Of Love, and When Smokey Sings.
At the peak of his success, he survived a brush with Hodgkin lymphoma, an uncommon cancer, while going on to hang out with such luminaries as Andy Warhol and Robbie Williams, whom he accompanied on a sell-out tour of football stadia.
A family man who received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of Sheffield the day before his daughter, Nancy, received her degree from the same university, he created timeless and sophisticated pop songs that have stood the test of time.
And now, with the publication of his autobiography, A Lexicon of Life, he’s hitting the road to share his remarkable stories and sing acoustic versions of his greatest hits.
“It’s been an incredible journey,” says Fry, who completed a sell-out UK tour earlier this year and will spend the summer touring arenas in the USA. And indeed it has.
Led by the charismatic Martin Fry, ABC was the band that redefined glamour and cool. They enjoyed TransAtlantic success as The Lexicon of Love proved as artful as a Warhol silkscreen, and glossier than Marilyn’s lipstick.
Frontman Martin Fry harked back to a golden era of luxe, as though Cole Porter had been re-imagined among the narrow streets of Sheffield. Little wonder his sleek, opulent, and beautiful debut retains the affection of listeners four decades on. With good reason, it has stood the test of time. And so has Martin Fry, who is telling his stories and singing his songs in this eagerly-awaited package.
Martin Fry.
The springboard for ABC
He grew up in the north of England, being inspired by David Bowie and The Sex Pistols, before starting a fanzine and then getting into bands. Music was in his blood: “I vividly remember that magical moment when I first went to see a rock show. Even before the act came on I was looking at the roadies on an empty stage and admiring the size of the PA system, totally entertained by that mind-boggling spectacle. My first gig was Cockney Rebel and opening up for them were Sailor. There was something totally comforting about watching a band on stage.”
The gig that changed his life was The Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade, in Manchester. “John Lydon just crouched and clutched his can of lager. He was very vulnerable but he had complete and utter disdain for the audience. He wasn’t going to fight them; he was just beyond that. There was just something brilliant about them, artistically. It wasn’t the safety pins and Kings Road fashion that attracted me to punk, I felt that was a bit of a Fleet Street invention really. It was something much deeper. They were great.”
Fry lived a bohemian life during his years at Sheffield University. They provided the springboard for ABC, whose debut album, The Lexicon Of Love, made the band global stars.
“I remember later in Tokyo, the four of us were sitting, eating in a restaurant, and a crowd gathered outside. People were literally trying to smash the window to get in. We had to go out the back door as the front window splintered and we were ushered into a speeding car. That kind of fame and recognition I can live without.”
The band hit the road, playing to audiences around the world and hanging out with such figures as Andy Warhol. “After we played New York we met Andy Warhol. It was the final days of Studio 54 and Pat Hackett, his friend and co-writer introduced us to him. We got this call to the hotel on a Tuesday morning, asking if we’d like to go and meet Andy at the Factory. Andy was there and he was the most down-to-earth guy you could meet. He was talking to me about acne products because his skin wasn’t great and neither was mine. He was drinking a cup of coffee and people would constantly come in and ask him to sign paintings and prints.”
ABC at the Palladium. Credit abcmartinfry.com
ABC at the Palladium. Credit abcmartinfry.com
Coming full circle
Band mates came and went as ABC became a fixture of the charts, hitting the Number 1 spot and earning a platinum disc for their debut, Lexicon of Love, and enjoying gold discs for Beauty Stab and Alphabet City.
Fry survived the crazy journey of pop stardom, eventually getting sober after his rock ’n’ roll lifestyle had taken its toll.
“Things changed dramatically for me. I just entered a new and very different world of being sober. I wanted to be present, for Julie, for Louis and for Nancy. Prior to that I’d always been off somewhere; off to a show, off to a bar, or just drifting off if I was in the room. That reality check had a profound effect on me. Sitting in AA I’d be looking down at my cup of coffee, thinking: ‘What am I doing here? My whole future is in this polystyrene cup.’
“Obviously, there’s a big part of me that identifies with the man in the gold lamé suit. That’s who I became. There are 40,000 people dancing in a field, singing my words back at me. But, you know, you have to understand that that’s just one part of who you are and what you do. That’s just one small facet of your life. Performing and playing shows had changed for me in the 90’s. I woke up to the reality that in the past, I’d been half-hearted, in comparison to what I was capable of. It’s a tough thing to admit to, but I felt I could have done so much better.”
A renaissance came and he joined Robbie Williams for a tour of football stadia, playing to tens of thousands of fans each night.
“Playing to something approaching 200,000 people at Milton Keynes Bowl for three nights was something I never thought would happen. But it did. Robbie’s tour felt like being part of a medieval kingdom. It must have been like that when they took Henry VIII to Agincourt.”
More tours followed, including a set of shows with Meatloaf. “About midway through the tour after a Sunday matinee in Leipzig, I could hear Meatloaf smashing up his dressing room, and for a while, and I was the only other artist who dared go in there. I didn’t try to restrain him, he was too big to restrain. But I did tell him to calm down and I warned him that if he carried on smashing up his room he’d end up having a heart attack.”
Fry created a brilliant new record: The Lexicon Of Love II, which took him back into the top five of the UK album chart. He’d come full circle, an artist who’d returned to the creative and commercial peaks that he’d enjoyed in the early part of his career.
A tour in early 2024 was the most successful of his career, as he sold out huge theatres across the UK, accompanied by an orchestra and Anne Dudley while playing The Lexicon of Love.
And now he’s sharing his stories during an intimate theatre tour, in which he’ll play acoustic versions of songs with two trusted bandmates, while remembering the remarkable journey he’s been on. His book charts that incredible story and he’s looking forward to hitting the road for a set of dates that promise to be remarkably special.
“It’s been a wild ride,” he says. “And the incredible thing is that as I hit the road with The Lexicon of Life, I feel as though I’m just getting started.”
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